Many different devices use light emitting diodes (LEDs), such as flashlights, traffic control signals, flat panel displays, mobile telephone displays, vehicle taillights, and light bulbs. The LEDs are typically current driven devices, meaning the LEDs are controlled by controlling the amount of current provided to the LEDs. Ideally, the current supplied to one or more LEDs is controlled at a minimal cost.
LED control has traditionally been done using floating buck regulators in peak-current mode, meaning the regulators regulate the peak current provided to the LEDs at switch-on times. In contrast, the average current used by the LEDs may be very different from the LEDs' peak current, and loosely controlled parameters (such as inductance and switching frequency) may alter the relation between the LEDs' average current and peak current. As a result, it is often not possible to predict or control the LEDs' average current based on peak current levels.
Another technique that has been devised for controlling LEDs involves modulating a reference voltage used to regulate the LEDs. However, this technique often requires using a matching resistor-capacitor (RC) filter to remove alternating current (AC) modulation. The RC filter may introduce delay into the control loop, and it may limit the range of switching frequencies that can be achieved. For example, at too low of a switching frequency, the RC filter may be unable to remove the AC components. At a higher frequency, the delay introduced by the RC filter may impede the bandwidth that can otherwise be achieved.
FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate conventional regulators for regulating LEDs. As shown in FIG. 1, a circuit 100 includes a conventional floating buck converter 102, a voltage comparator 104, a leading edge blanking unit 106, and pulse width modulation (PWM) control logic 108. The converter 102 includes one or more LEDs 110 coupled in series with one another. The LEDs 110 are also coupled in parallel with a capacitor 112 and a diode 114. An inductor 116 is coupled between the LEDs 110 and the diode 114. The diode 114 and the inductor 116 are coupled to a transistor 118, which is also coupled to a resistor 120. The gate of the transistor 118 is coupled to a gate driver 122.
The signal provided by the gate driver 122 to the transistor 118 is based on the operation of the voltage comparator 104, the leading edge blanking unit 106, and the PWM control logic 108. The voltage comparator 104 compares an output of the leading edge blanking unit 106 to a reference voltage VREF. An output of the voltage comparator 104 is provided to the PWM control logic 108, which includes two pulse generators 124-126 and three NOR gates 128-132. Each of the pulse generators 124-126 receives an input signal having approximately a 50% duty cycle. The pulse generators 124-126 generate signals having pulses with approximately the same switching period as the input signal. However, the pulses generated by the pulse generator 124 are shorter than the pulses generated by the pulse generator 126. The outputs of the voltage regulator 104 and the pulse generators 124-126 are received by the NOR gates 128-132. The NOR gate 132 produces an output signal that is provided to the gate driver 122 for use in controlling the transistor 118, where the output signal produced by the NOR gate 132 has a desired duty cycle.
The leading edge blanking unit 106 receives the voltage produced between the transistor 118 and the resistor 120. The leading edge blanking unit 106 removes a spike in that voltage at the beginning of each switching period to provide a smoother input to the voltage comparator 104. The spike could represent switching noise generated by switching the transistor 118.
In this conventional circuit 100, no information regarding the current through the inductor 116 is available when the transistor 118 is switched off. As a result, a sensed voltage SEN (the voltage across the resistor 120) is not related to the average current through the inductor 116. A peak-current regulator (formed from components 104-108) turns the transistor 118 off when the sensed voltage SEN is above the reference voltage VREF. However, this is very different from regulating the average current through the LEDs 110.
Another convention approach is shown in FIG. 2, where a circuit 200 modulates a reference voltage VREF used to regulate the LEDs 110. The circuit 200 includes the floating buck converter 102, voltage comparator 104, and PWM control logic 108 described above. The circuit 200 also includes an operational transconductance amplifier 202, transistors 204-210, a voltage source 212, resistors 214-218, capacitors 220-224, and an inverter 226. The gate of the transistor 204 is coupled to an input of the inverter 226, the gate of the transistor 208, and the output of the gate driver 122. The transistor 204 is also coupled between the transistor 118 and the resistor 120. The gate of the transistor 206 is coupled to the output of the inverter 226.
In this circuit 200, the signal generated between the transistors 208-210 is generally a square wave with a maximum voltage of VREF. The signal generated between the transistors 204-206 has peaks that are greater than the voltage VREF. The transistors 204-206, resistor 214, and capacitor 220 produce a signal supplied to one input of the operational transconductance amplifier 202. The transistors 208-210, voltage source 212, resistor 216, capacitor 222, and inverter 226 produce a signal supplied to another input of the operational transconductance amplifier 202. Both inputs to the operational transconductance amplifier 202 are generally triangular waves. The output of the operational transconductance amplifier 202 is supplied to the resistor 218 and capacitor 224, as well as to the voltage comparator 104. The other input to the voltage comparator 104 is a sawtooth voltage signal having approximately the same switching period as the signals in the PWM control logic 108.
In this approach, the reference voltage VREF is switched on and off and may have the exact same duty factor as the transistor 118. Several RC filters with a time constant much greater than the switching period are used to remove AC components in order to extract the average current and voltage. This, however, leads to large space requirements and limited switching frequency ranges.